


Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe

by j quadrifrons (Jenavira)



Series: Gertrude Robinson, Actual MLIS [2]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, about to be jossed, gertrude robinson professional badass, meta in the form of fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 16:38:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18553642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jenavira/pseuds/j%20quadrifrons
Summary: The Eye watches, the Web weaves. Gertrude does the filing.





	Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe

Gertrude liked filing. Elias complained about it, told her often it was a more appropriate job for her assistants, but she found the process soothing. It gave her time to think, without the risks of thinking out loud. And besides, there were some...irregularities in her filing system these days. It would be a little counter-productive to tuck everything away in carefully sorted categories only to have to explain the whole system to someone else. So when Michael eased open the door of her office at six o'clock on a Thursday evening to ask if she wanted a cup of tea before he headed out, she was filing.

"Are you sure?" he asked when she turned him down, as politely as she could. "It's, um..." He looked at his watch like he didn't leave at six on the dot every night.

"Perfectly sure, Michael, thank you," she said crisply. She didn't mean to be so short with him, but she was elbow-deep in statements concerning the Spiral, and the boy was really not cut out for that. "Don't worry about me; I'm nearly done here." She was not, but that was hardly the point.

"All right." He fidgeted for a second, then brightened and said, "Oh, I think I've got a lead on that computer you were looking for. Chris Johnson, he's a friend of my - well, that doesn't matter, he rebuilds old PCs, and he thinks he probably has something hanging around with Works on it, so we can get at those old statements." He beamed, pleased with himself, so much that even if he'd had the right to know Gertrude couldn't have told him that any statement that had successfully been transcribed digitally probably wasn't worth the effort.

Still, she thanked him rather more warmly than was her usual habit, and he left happily enough. _You shouldn't coddle him_ , she told herself, _he'll need to come round sooner or later. You're getting soft in your old age._ She snorted at her own thoughts, turning back to her desk for another stack of files -- statements on the Dark.

Gertrude pulled the lids off another couple of boxes, tugging them within easy reach. Even now she didn't dare to let the filing system get too transparent, lest someone stumble across something they shouldn't see. The complex system of organization that split up statements by their relevant Power, the date, and the status of the statement giver was hard enough to keep in her own head that she thought it was managing all right for now. Still, there was a chance she'd have to add another layer of complexity, if her suspicions about the upcoming Ritual were correct.

There were cobwebs in box B-23. She'd been in it just yesterday, after Elias had asked a question about the Circus that had seemed just a little too insightful and she had begun to wonder if her filing system was really doing its job. There should not be cobwebs in box B-23. There should not be cobwebs in any of her file boxes.

She rocked back on her heels and rested her hands on her thighs, thinking. Earlier this week she'd asked Eric to dig her out a tape recorder, and it too had arrived with a cobweb in its spooling mechanism, but that hadn't seemed too odd given that it hadn't been touched in at least five years. She'd noted it, of course - in her position, it didn't do to ignore details like that - but it hadn't seemed particularly suspicious. Twice was suspicious.

As was hesitation. In the Archives, after all, you knew exactly what was watching at all times.

When she turned back to her desk for the next batch of files, there was a spider perched on the corner of the desk, several careful inches away from the shelter of the tower of papers and cardstock. A lace-web spider, she thought, _A. fenestralis_. It seemed to be watching her, but for the Archivist, even eight more eyes didn't add enough weight to notice. Gertrude watched it back, considering. "I shall have to suggest to Elias," she said carefully, "that we do something about Michael's initiative. He's much too ambitious to be an Archival Assistant forever."

The spider did nothing. How long, she wondered, would it take a very small spider to get from here to Elias's office? It was a two minute walk for her; ten for Michael, who could not fail to stop if he met even one person on the way. The spider didn't move. They never do, Gertrude thought, when you watch them. They feel hunted. Fair enough. She picked up the files and returned to her boxes, clearing the cobweb with a careful sweep of an empty file folder.

There were no statements about the Web in this particular batch. None in any of these boxes, in fact. The collection was well distributed, scattered among half a dozen drawers and boxes, but there were so few of them. She used to think that was because the Web did not leave survivors. She was no longer quite so sure.

When she turned back for the final stack of files, the spider was gone. Four minutes, she thought, from here to Elias's office. Of course, there was no guarantee that the visible messenger was the only one. But that it had let itself be seen, positioned itself to be seen, was...interesting.

As she finished her filing, Gertrude mentally reviewed all the Web statements she had taken, the ones she had read out loud into the echoing walls of the Archives when her assistants had gone home for the evening, and increasingly sometimes even when they were still there. She knew them all by heart, of course. Statements, even secondhand ones, were not the kind of thing she was allowed to forget. The spiders gave away so little. Vulnerable to fire, dangerous to the uncertain and the unwary.

She would have to keep an eye on her assistants. She would need them in the days to come. None of them could afford such a petty loss at this stage. She was fairly certain Elias knew that, but then, he always did have his own motives.

Before she went home for the night, Gertrude fetched a broom from the janitor's cupboard and swept clean all the corners of the ceiling and out behind the filing cabinets. There would be delicate blue webs again in the morning, but these at least would be new, and she would be able to watch them from the start.

**Author's Note:**

> Some days I'm convinced Web!Elias is canon. Other days I'm convinced it's not. Pretty sure we'll all find out soon. (Conceived in early season four; finished shortly after 135.)
> 
>  
> 
> Please come yell about TMA with me, I have too many feelings  
> [@j_quadrifrons](https://twitter.com/j_quadrifrons), [backofthebookshelf](https://backofthebookshelf.tumblr.com)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20005504) by [GoLBPodfics (GodOfLaundryBaskets)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GodOfLaundryBaskets/pseuds/GoLBPodfics)




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